Silicon Laboratories has launched an ultra-low-power microcontroller (MCU) range, the C8051F91x/0x, designed to increase battery life in portable designs and other power-sensitive embedded systems.

The F91x/0x MCUs are suitable for a range of applications where low power consumption is critical, such as smart meters, RFID tags, personal medical devices, sensor interfaces, energy harvesting, home-security systems, and smoke and fire detectors.

The power-efficient MCUs offer a low-active-mode current consumption (160mA/MHz), which saves power when the system is running.

They also consume a low current in sleep mode, either with an active real-time clock and brown-out detect circuit (300nA) or without a real-time clock or brown-out detect circuit operating (10nA) while maintaining full RAM retention.

The F91x/0x range has been designed to wake up in less than two microseconds, minimising the amount of time spent in an energy-wasting state.

These specifications enable manufacturers to extend the battery lifetime of their end products or potentially use smaller batteries, saving additional system cost.

The F91x/0x MCUs offer 8 and 16kB flash memory options while providing 25 MIPS core performance and advanced analogue peripherals such as an on-chip 12-bit analogue-to-digital (ADC) converter with an autonomous power-saving burst mode.

They are software and footprint compatible, enabling developers to use one-board layout and code set while migrating to lower-cost designs.

The F91x/0x MCUs integrate an efficient DC-to-DC converter, designed to operate down to 0.9V, enabling AA or AAA battery operation.

In addition, the converter can supply up to 65mW of output power to drive other system components such as LEDs, RF transceivers and sensors.

The C8051F91x/0x range is available in a compact, 24-pin 4 x 4mm package, suitable for space-constrained applications.

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